An unshielded twisted-pair type cable designed for high signal integrity. The actual standard defines specific electrical properties of the wire, but it is most commonly known as being rated for its Ethernet capability of 100 Mbps. (source)

A cable that uses, solid core telephone wires, versus stranded, and includes 4 pairs (8 wires) of unshielded twisted wire. This is currently the most popular cable used in a 10/100 Ethernet based network. RJ45 connectors and Jack Modules are used on this cable.

A higher grade of unshielded twisted-pair cable required for networking applications such as 100Mbps Fast Ethernet. It is most commonly found in buildings that were wired within the last five years. It can also be used with 10 Mbps Ethernet.

Copper cable that can support data speeds of up to 100 Mbps. Some campus buildings built or rewired since the 1980s use Cat5 or 5e cable; these cables are not being replaced as a part of the Campus Network Upgrade Project because they support the 100-Mbps-to-the-desktop goal of the upgrade.

Eight standard copper telephone wires, encased in a plastic sheath. The wires are color-coded to match corresponding slots in jacks and patch panels: blue and blue/white, orange and orange/white, green and green/white and brown and brown/white. Color/white wires may be striped blue and white, orange and white, etc., or they may just be white. The wires are twisted inside the sheath in a way that used for data transmission. It costs about 13 cents a foot at computer supply stores.

is a category of cable that is capable of transmitting data at high speeds (100 megabits per second and faster). CAT 5 cable is commonly used for voice and data applications in the home. Its predecessor, CAT 3, is not designed to handle data transmission as effectively.

Category 5 cable, commonly known as Cat 5, is an unshielded twisted pair cable type designed for high signal integrity. Category 5 has been superseded by the Category 5e specification. This type of cable is often used in structured cabling for computer networks such as Ethernet, although it is also used to carry many other signals such as basic voice services, token ring, and ATM (at up to 155 Mbit/s, over short distances).